Elevating apparatus.



J. H. GILMAN.

ELEVATING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED AR. Il. i916.

1 ,245,580. Patented Nov. G, 1917.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEroE.

JOHN H. GILMAN, 0F OTTAWA, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO KING 8a HAMILTON COMPANY,

OF OTTAWA, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

ELEVATING- APPARATUS.

Application led March 11, 1916. Serial No. 83,459. I

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN H. GILMAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Ottawa, in the county of La Salle and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elevating Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear and exact specification.

My invention is concerned with conveyers used for elevating materials of considerable size, such, for instance, as ear corn, and is designed to remedy a serious difficulty which I have found in practice to exist in these devices as heretofore constructedwhen operating on such materials. This difiiculty consists of the possibility of an ear of corn or some such sized piece of material getting caught between the conveyer 'chains and the center board, and being carried over the sprocket wheels between their peripheries and the chains, with the result o f displacing one chain relative to the other, andthus throwing the cups or other conveyer members oif of their horizontal position, thus interfering with the operativeness of the device, if not actually causingv breakage.

To obviate this difficulty is the purpose of my present invention, to illustrate which I have annexed hereto a sheet of drawings,

in which the same reference characters areY used to designate identical parts 1n all the figures, of which,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a conveyer embodying my invention, with the middle portion broken away;

Fig. 2 is a view of the top portion of the same, with the adjacent side of the casing removed to disclose the interior;

Fig. 3 is a plan view in section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a detail showing the connections between the chains and the conveyer cups.

My invention is applied to the type of conveyers which ordinarily consist of a lower shaft 10 journaled in suitable bearings and having a pair of sprocket wheels 11 secured thereon near the inner walls of the casing 12 in which the elevating apparatus proper is mounted. In the upper end of the casing is a shaft 13 having a pair of sprocket wheels 14 similar to the Wheels 11, spaced apart the same distance, and one end of the shaft 13 outside of the casing preferably has secured thereon a sprocket wheel 15 through which the elevator 1s Specification of Letters Patent.

driven by means of a sprocket chain con-` nected to any suitable driving sprocket wheel. A pair of endless sprocket chains 16 are passed over the wheels 11 and 14,

and have placed between'them at suitable intervals a plurality of cups 17, which are preferably riveted to the bars 18, which in turn are riveted to projections 19 eX- tending from special links 20 ofthe sprocket chains 16. Between the peripheries of the sprocket wheels 14 is secured a sheet-metal drum 21, and a discharge spout 22 is suitably located and secured to the side of the top of the casing 12, so that the cups 17 rising on the side of the casing opposite to the spout 22 will carry up the ear corn or' other contents until they assume a horizontal position in passing overthe top of the drum 21, at which time their contents are4 discharged by gravity onto the drum, and thence fall into the spout 22.

Prior to my invention, a suitable center board 23 has been disposed between the as'- cending and descending iights of the chains, and extended in a straight'line from the boot to the drum 21, the position ofthe upper end 24 of the old style of center board being in-` dicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2.

I found that, in practice, ears of corn were apt to get lodged between theV ascending flights of the chains 16 and bars 18 and the adjacent side of the center board 23, and such ears sometimes were carried clear from the boot up to the wheels 14 and were wedged between the wheels 14 and the chains, resulting in a vital disarrangement of the chains. To obviate this difficulty, I form in one or more points of the ascending flight of the chains a pocket, preferably located, as seen in Fig. 2, at the top, and formed by inclining backward the top portion 25 of the center board 23. Where an ear of corn has become lodged between a chain 16 or bar 18 and the center board 23, when it reaches the pocket formed by the backwardly inclined end 25, it is released, falls into the ascending cup 17 which happens to be beneath it, and is then carried over the drum 21 and delivered to the spout 22 in the desired manner.

Occasionally. an ear of corn carrying some of the husks will have the husks caught in the links of the chains 16,' and to disengage such ears from the chains, I provide on both Sides of the walls a short knockout channel 26, which is preferably formed of a rectangular casting having a pair of ribs 27 extending inwardly from its face so that the links of the chains 16 may pass between them without much clearance, thus shearing or tearing olf any husks that may be attached to the chain.

While I' have shown and described my invention as embodied in the form which I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purposes, it will beunderstood that it is capable of modifications, and that I do not desire to he limited in the interpretation of the following claims except as may be necessitated by the state of the prior art.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure' by Letters Patent of the United States, 1s:

1. In an ear corn conveyer, the combination with an endless sprocket chain, of lifting members secured thereon, a sprocket wheel over which the chain runs, a discharge member beyond the wheel, and a center board adjacent the ascending flight of the chain having a portion thereof inclined away from said ascending iiight of the chain to a point adjacent the descending flight to form a releasing` pocket in which ears of corn caught between the chain and the centerboard will be released and fall back into the aproaching lifting member.v

2. In an ear-corn conveyer, the combination with a pair of endless sprocket chains, of lifting members secured between said chains, a pair of sprocket wheels on the same shaft over which the chains run, a drum located between the peripheries of said sprocket wheels, a vdischarge member beyond the wheels, and a center board adjacent the ascending flight of the chain, havingv a portion thereof inclined away from said ascending flight to a point adjacent the descending flight to form a releasing pocket in which ears of corn caught between the chain and the center-board will be released and fall back into the approaching lifting member. l

3. In a conveyer, the combination with a pair of endless sprocket chains, of lifting members secured between said chains, a pair of sprocket wheels over which the chains run, a discharge member beyond the sprocket wheels into which thev lifting members empty, and knockout castings between-which the chains pass prior to their reaching the sprocket wheels. Y

fl. In a conveyer, thecombination with a pair of endless sprocket chains, of lifting members secured between said chains, ay pairv of sprocket wheels over which the chains run, a discharge member beyond the sprocket wheels into which the lifting members empty, and knockout castings between which the chains pass prior to their reaching the* sprocket wheels, said castings each consisting of a suitably supported base with two projecting flanges between which the chains pass yon their upward run.

In witness whereof,

February A. D. 1916.

n JOHN H. GILMAN. [La] lVitnesses EMIL G.' Hnssmix, Y En R. CLAUS.

Copies of ythis patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patenti, Washington, D. G.

I have hereunto set4 my hand and affixed my seal, this V26" day of 

